Overclock HTC DROID DNA To 1.8GHz With Beastmode Kernel

HTC finally released the source code for the DROID DNA, while Verizon decided to locked down the bootloader. However, that didn’t keep the developer community from doing something about it, and the bootloader was shortly unlocked, paving the way for custom kernel development. In the latest development on the kernel side, ‘Team blackout’ has just released the aptly named Beastmode kernel that will rev up the DNA’s CPU frequency to 1.8GHz, with added overclocking for the GPU and FSB! You wonder if 1.5GHz is insufficient on Quad Core, and no it is not. Though the way things go in the developer community, if it can be done, why not? More on the kernel and how you can flash it on your DROID DNA after the jump.

Note that the CPU can be overclocked up to 2.1GHz using this kernel, but that is highly unstable at that clock speed for now. At 1.8GHz however, those who tried it reported positive feedback of the device being stable enough for daily driver. The GPU has been overclocked to 500MHz for 3D and 200MHz for 2D, along with an the Front Side Bus (FSB) getting overclocked to 600MHz! Moreover, the Sweep2Wake option has been added as well, but it isn’t enabled by default for this latest release of the kernel. Once enabled, this option lets you swipe a finger on your screen to unlock the device from the sleep state. Do note that the kernel is constantly being updated for now on accounts of stability issues and general bugs encountered.

Installation isn’t entirely a tricky issue, but you will have to flash the kernel manually via fastboot, and then flash the necessary modules package via a custom recovery.

Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked during the process.

Reboot the phone into recovery mode. Turn the phone off and then power it on, holding the ‘Volume down’ key pressed as the phone boots into bootloader (fastboot) mode.

Choose ‘recovery’ using the Volume keys to enter Recovery mode.

Make a Nandroid backup from ‘backup and restore’.

Navigate to ‘install zip from sdcard’ > ‘choose zip from sdcard’ and select the Modules package.

Reboot into Bootloader mode again. (Do not boot into system.)

Run command prompt or terminal and navigate to the location of the kernel (the boot.img file).

Enter the following command to test if the kernel boots successfully, before flashing it:

fastboot boot boot.img

If your device does not successfully boot, DO NOT PROCEED.

If your device boots successfully using the kernel, you are ready to flash it. Just get back into bootloader mode like you did earlier and enter the following commands to flash the kernel:

fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot reboot

The phone should now boot into the system with the new kernel flashed. You can adjust the CPU frequency using apps like SetCPU or CPU Master from the Play Store. If you seem to be having issues with this new kernel, simply restore from the Nandroid backup made earlier.

For any updates and queries related to this kernel, head over to the forum thread at XDA-Developers linked below.